


Third Eye

by ForgoneMoose



Category: Persona 5
Genre: important favor is not an innuendo i swear, ren is not a furry in this fic, the accusations are baseless, their relationship is purely platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 07:15:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19459042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForgoneMoose/pseuds/ForgoneMoose
Summary: Morgana helps Ren through an excruciating day at school, after which Ren promises to do an important favor for him.





	Third Eye

Ren stared intently down at his test, knowing all too well that looking up and about the classroom would be a grave mistake. 

Try as he might, scanning the piece of paper from every angle, the contents refused to make any sort of sense to him. It was true that he hadn’t studied the material at all. However, it was also true that the material had not been taught in class at all.

Still, it wasn’t like he had any choice but to try.

_**2)** Assuming that cats’ skin melts at 4987 degrees Celsius, precisely how long would it take to fully cook a human adult wearing a suit made of it? SHOW ALL WORK._

There was no space below the question to show his work.

_**7)** Steel blade maggots pick apart her brain, downtown streetwalker hit by a train, singing in the rain, then why did the Hutu Power movement fail to pick up traction outside of Rwanda? Cite all sources._

How do you even cite sources on a test? It didn’t make any sense.

Ren held his head in his hands, hoping he could avoid drawing the Persons’ attention. Unfortunately, his fear came to pass.

A Person with short blue hair and a stained, white shirt turned in his seat to face him. Ren made the mistake of meeting his eyes briefly after feeling eyes on him. Although Ren quickly tried to make it look like nothing had happened, the Person’s stone cold expression snapped into an ear-to-ear smile. 

After a few uncomfortable seconds passed, Ren realized that the Person probably wasn’t going to stop, so he uncomfortably turned and waved meekly at him. It didn’t seem to have any effect.

A loud thump made Ren jump in his seat. Awash with anxiety, he prayed that the other Persons wouldn’t take notice. Fortunately, they seemed to remain intently glued to the blackboard at the front of the room.

The noise had come from the Person staring at him – he had fallen out of his seat, and now laid on the floor, still looking up at Ren with that same smile. He began crawling closer to his seat. Ren was now completely uncomfortable, unable to even pretend to focus on his test, as he had been for the past two hours.

The Person pulled himself up Ren’s chair, arms on the side legs. He placed his head on his lap, facing Ren’s groin, before rotating his face to look up at Ren once again.

“I c a n h e l p w I t h t h a t!.!.” A whisper resounded throughout the room.

Ren’s best efforts only allowed him to gently shake his head no, trying to avoid shaking at the sensation of being touched by a Person’s burning hot skin. Of course, the Person didn’t seem to care about his objection.

“t h e a n s w e r t o 3 8 Is d o g u r I n e. v I t a m I n d , ha haha!.!.”

Ren couldn’t bring himself to do so much as politely smile at this… “joke”…? Also, the test only went up to question number 25, but that was beside the point.

The Manipulator stationed at the front of the classroom seemed to finally notice them, having stopped drawing an accurate diagram of the inside of God’s stomach on the blackboard to turn around and face the two of them.

“a m a m I y a (kun), m I s h I m a (kun), **This Is Illegal. All Warnings Were Given, And Were Final.** ”

Ren had hoped he would never find himself in this situation. Although the Persons were slow, they were persistent, and could be a problem in large numbers. More pressingly, he had been around to witness a Manipulator Purify the mind of the detective, Goro Akechi, a few days prior. It was not something that he wished to experience himself, to put it lightly.

The Persons stood from their seats in unison, having to slouch to avoid hitting the top part of their bodies against the ceiling. They all turned to look at Ren – although it seemed like their eyes focused in different directions, Ren had learned from the one called Ryuji that the eyes at the top of their “heads” were not their real eyes.

“J-Joker!” Morgana whispered from inside his book bag.

Ren looked around the room, scanning for options. The one called Sojiro had taken away his knife almost two weeks ago, and killing Persons was very different from killing people, regardless. He had successfully circumvented several persons by asking them profound questions (for example, _what color is Wednesday?_ ), but the Manipulators were immune to such trickery. Persons surrounded him on all sides.

The window was his only option. He was currently six stories up, but the hope that he and Morgana could somehow manage the fall was all he had. He picked up his book bag and stood from his seat.

As he turned to run to the window, all was interrupted by an omnipresent, piercing screech. It sounded something like an angry, dying whale, fluctuating wildly up and down in pitch. The problem was that it would. Not. Stop. 

Nearly thirty seconds passed as Ren fell to the floor covering his ears, Morgana curling up tightly inside of his bag. The sound finally ended, leaving as suddenly as it had appeared. Ren couldn’t seem to get used to this, and the sound seemed to be growing worse with each passing day.

“ **Class ended has. Ritual.** ” The Manipulator said, before bashing its face violently into the desk. The desk toppled over onto the termite-eaten wooden floor, and the Manipulator got on the ground on all fours like some kind of wild animal before continuing to bash its face into the desk.

“Joker, now!”

Morgana didn’t have to tell him twice. Ren quickly ran to the exit in the corner of the room, weaving through all of the now-deactivating Persons falling face-first onto their desks as the sound of the Manipulator’s pounding grew from being a dull pound into more of a fleshy squelch.

As Ren turned the corner to run down the hallway just outside, the floor gave way, dropping him down through the floor beneath, breaking through the floor there too. Fortunately, his fall was broken as he landed on a roaming Figure in the hallway, crushing its brittle bones and squashing it.

Unfortunately, it took Ren a moment too long to remember that Figures’ blood was not something that you want to make contact with. He frantically jumped away from the spot he had landed on, and removed and threw his blazer away from himself with great force. A crystalline growth rapidly spread all over it, freezing it in place through the sheer weight of it alone. 

The sight filled him with dread, as he remembered his first encounter with a Figure. Its blood had spread to Morgana’s tail, and Ren had had to use his knife to amputate nearly his entire tail to break him free. 

Taking a moment to catch his breath now that he was in relative safety, he picked up the book bag that he had dropped in the fall and walked as quickly as he could to the exit of the school, which was just down the hall.

Unfortunately, he ran into the one called Ryuji, who normally would have been a fairly welcome sight, being one of the only beings here that seemed to be on his side to any significant degree. However, Ren really just wanted to get the hell out of dodge already, so he tried to make the impending conversation quick.

The one called Ryuji currently had his face buried in Ann’s crotch, his tongue looped fully around her waist. Seeing Ren pass by, he used his teeth to tear off a large chunk of pubic hair from her naked corpse, taking a patch of skin with it as his tongue snapped back into his mouth. Ann’s decayed body dropped to the floor, one of her legs separating from the rest of it in the process. The one called Ryuji briefly seemed upset by this before smiling at Ren.

“o h, h I y a, partner. t e s t g o o k a y?.?."

"U-Uh, yeah, Ryuji! I'm sorry, but I have to... I really have to get back to Leblanc, Sojiro needs me to work this afternoon. I'll talk to you tomorrow!"

Ren didn't even wait for a response before starting to walk away. The one called Ryuji didn't like this.

Spider-like pointed legs grabbed Ren by the ankles, picking him up off the ground. He struggled in the air, before Ryuji slammed him down into the floor, then dropping him like some sort of rag doll. Ren took slow, deep breaths, desperately attempting to keep his calm through the pain.

He got himself up one one knee and pulled a shard of his broken glasses out of his cheek, having narrowly avoided losing an eye. The blunt force to his head and the seeping blood running down his face were still worrying, however.

The one called Ryuji had approached him silently from behind, and Ren screamed when he rested his head on his shoulder before clamping his hand over his mouth to avoid alerting others.

" **NO** , d u d e. w e' r e g o I n g o n a d v e n t u r e!.!." The one called Ryuji looked at him with a blank expression for a second before suddenly breaking into a smile. All three rows of his teeth were visible.

The one called Ryuji picked Ren up in a bridal carry, and started to make off in a sprint towards a window. Ren reached his arm out for his book bag, but this was a futile effort, being as there was already too much distance. Ren's hope shattered in that moment; there was no way Morgana could survive out here as a lone cat, and he doubted he would be able to keep on going without the one normal person that he knew to talk to.

Morgana forced his way out of Ren's book bag, plopping onto the floor on all fours, as cats are wont to do. Charging towards the one called Ryuji, he was able to catch up just before they got to the window leading to the Abyss. 

With a hiss, Morgana leapt into the air, latching his teeth firmly into the one called Ryuji's third placenta. He instantly began to let out an ear-piercing, shrill scream, making futile efforts to reach behind his back. Eventually, he fell to the floor onto his lower knees, now pounding the floor wildly out of sheer pain rather than in any attempt to stop his attacker.

His screams sounded almost similar to a pig's squeal by the time Morgana chewed hard enough to rupture a hole in the fragile organ. Tar-black fluid oozed out of the wound before quickly evaporating, coating the air in the hallway with a layer of black. The other Figures in the hallway entered into a defensive stance in unison upon smelling the air, throwing back their false head to reveal their razor sharp upper fangs, all pointed at Morgana.

Ren had now gotten back to his feet, and seeing the situation that he and Morgana had found themselves in, picked the kitty-cat up and ran out the window leading to the Rat Line, their original target destination. 

Glass shattered, and the two of them seemed to fall into the darkness for hours. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling; it was more similar to falling down through an endless pool of water than jumping off a very high building, Ren felt. As soon as he felt himself begin drifting off to sleep in midair, the Siren sounded, announcing the pair's arrival.

  


* * *

  


Ren woke up sprawled on the ground, alone in a dank alleyway of some sort. Well, alone with Morgana, at least. Morgana looked like hell - understandable after what he had just done.

Getting to his feet, he examined the area. Behind him were several entrances that presumably lead to the Maze of Many Mutations, which Yusuke had painted and added to the city as part of a bet with Satan. Ironically, he ended up starving to death after getting trapped in there; Ren quickly learned the shortcuts around the city to avoid having to pass through it entirely.

He turned his focus ahead, to the Grand Central Circuit, hub of the Rat Line. He walked up the stairs in front of him, then down the stairs past those, then up the stairs past those, then down the stairs past those, then up the stairs past those. It was something of a meaningless effort, as he still had to wait on Morgana in the end anyway, who had opted to take the elevator instead.

When he finally meandered past the stairs, there was luckily a pristine coffin waiting for the two of them. Ren wasted no time cramming the both of them in, not wishing to potentially allow any Persons to materialize before they could get moving. It was a tight fit; the cold, metal door squeezed against Morgana's spine as they huddled together in the cramped coffin.

Several moments passed as the inside of the coffin began to grow quite hot; however, they both knew that this discomfort would be nothing compared to what was to come. After a couple minutes, the whispers began. Not in Japanese, or any language that either might recognize, but yet they seemed quite articulate all the same. Some mocked them, some expressed concern, a few were downright angry.

Then, Ren felt the hands on his back. They were gentle, running down his spine in a sort of slight massage, but unwelcome all the same.

"Pass water beacon entranced pool bucket Asia?" A child's voice asked from outside the coffin. The pair knew that answering would only make things worse, and tried to remain still and quiet.

"The the the the power cross nepotism kill dynamo?!" The same child asked, now sounding furious. Fed up with the events of the day, Ren raised his elbow up as far as the cramped space would allow and brought it down upon where the voice seemed to come from. A deep metal sound like a gong resounded when his elbow made contact, and this seemed to make the whispering stop, along with the child.

The outside went silent, and Ren and Morgana could feel the coffin stop moving. Suddenly, they felt a heavy pounding ravage the outsides of the coffin from all directions, its metal body groaning and squeaking from the damage. As the lid began to cave in, they felt themselves being flung far through the air.

  


* * *

  


Upon hitting the ground, the pair gathered their senses and examined where they had ended up. Morgana seemed rather woozy, likely from the sheer exhaustion of the day's events. Ren admittedly wasn't doing too much better. He picked Morgana back up, carrying him in his arms.

They were in the alley that had lead to the Rat Line. It was literally where they had began. They hadn't actually gone anywhere. They had technically made negative progress, as they had walked to the coffin from here already. 

But, there was an important distinction. In front of them was not the Grand Central Circuit, but Cafe Leblanc. It was much larger now than when Ren had last seen it over a week ago; apparently, the one called Sojiro had done some rather major renovations to it in their absence.

Speaking of the devil, he seemed to suddenly appear in front of the cafe as Ren started walking towards its front door. He wore what could only be described as a maniacal grin, his palms clasped together tightly in front of himself. He wore an apron which said, "World's Best tseB s'dlroW".

"w e l l, c o m e! t o! t h e h o m e. son. m a y I t a k e y o u r o r d e r?.?."

"N-No thanks, Sakura-san. I'm, uh, actually kind of tired. I think I'm going to just head in and take a nap. Please don't call me if you need me for something."

Ren opened the door and quickly slipped through, shutting it behind him.

The one called Sojiro was fast, though. He had managed to slip one of his lower arms through the crack of the door before Ren could completely shut it, and it waved around wildly, trying its damnedest to cut him with the knife that it brandished.

Ren opened the door back up slightly before slamming it repeatedly into the lower arm. It dropped the knife and cried out in pain, while the one called Sojiro looked on with the same wide smile plastered upon his face, impervious to the pain of his Extensions. Fortunately, this was still enough to get the arm out of the door, and Ren locked it behind himself.

The one called Sojiro moved in a flash to mash his face against the glass pane of the door, looking inside as if expecting something (what exactly, Ren couldn't even begin to place). Ren bent down to pick up the knife that had been confiscated from him after he'd attacked a Waltzing Form to examine the healing properties of its sinew.

"t h o u g h t y o u m I g h t w a n t I t b a c k?.?." The one called Sojiro said, voice bleeding faintly through the glass barrier.

As Ren put the knife into his pocket, Morgana spoke up for the first time in a while.

"J...Joker... help..."

Ren looked down and gasped in horror when he got a good look at Morgana. Bits of his skin had fallen off, leaving a trail of blood and fur leading all the back to where they had woken up a moment earlier. His only friend was falling apart in his hands, and he had no idea how to help him.

"I can take you to Takemi-san! She might be able to-"

"She's d-dead, remember?"

"But! I, um, might be able to find something there-"

"No. It's... it's okay, Joker."

Morgana looked up to meet Ren's gaze. A resolute expression on his face gave Ren some more confidence in Morgana's decision, even if he still didn't like it. Well, Morgana's face was resolute by cat standards. It was the intent that counts, really.

Ren solemnly carried his friend up to his old room in the attic, unable to prevent tears from flowing down his cheeks as he pondered trying to live in this stupid, fucked up world all alone. Morgana was in much the same condition, unable to bear the thought of leaving his first and only friend behind, or see him suffering the way he was now.

Finally up the stairs, Ren brought Morgana over to the bed they had shared so many nights together in the past. Ren placed him gently onto the center of the bed, stroking his fur.

Ren retracted his hand, startled as Morgana screamed in agony. 

"Joker! I-I made a big mistake earlier. I saw that thing trying to run off with you, and got so mad. I didn't think-"

Morgana was cut off as he stopped to violently cough and convulse, spitting up blood onto the bed. A viscous, black substance trailed down Morgana's mouth after it.

"Well, you can add eating a third placenta to the list of things not to do, h-huh?" Morgana whispered weakly, making a vain attempt to lighten the situation. 

Ren had no idea what he could even do at this point.

"Joker... Ren. Please... before I... make this stop. It hurts."

Ren took a moment to realize what Morgana was asking for, then reached into his pocket for his knife. As his fingers brushed the cold steel blade, he was assaulted by memories of an eerily similar situation.

  


* * *

  


He was a fifth grader. He had just had to kill a friend of his from his class, Kaori-san. It was at his father's discretion, of course - Ren couldn't actually want to kill anyone even if the world depended on it.

_Ren, it hurts now, I know._

Dad knelt down to eye level with Ren, placing a hand on his shoulder.

_But if you didn't do this, the whole world would feel this pain, that you have right now. Sparing them of all this - it's worth everything, don't you think?_

He and his father had lured an innocent little girl - someone whom Ren had considered a friend - into their home, and stabbed her to death. All voices of reason were drowned out by her dying screams.

Was this really saving the world?

  


* * *

  


Ren snapped back to reality, his upper half draped over Morgana's still body. Getting up and off of it, he realized that he must have killed Morgana while in his trance.

Maybe that was for the best, honestly.

Ren stood up and began pacing about the room, trying to plan out how he could possibly do anything without Morgana by his side. Nothing came to mind.

_Well, I'm feeling pretty tired already._

Ren figured that perhaps some sleep would do him some good. Giving a resigned sigh, he climbed into bed, pulling the dead cat close to his chest as he drifted into a restless sleep.

"See you in the morning, Morgana, Ren." the one called Sojiro said, turning out the light for the slumbering pair with a soft smile.


End file.
